Tyson Told Five People of Fairfax Allegations before Going Public

Several months before going public with her sexual-assault claim against Virginia lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax, Vanessa Tyson described the alleged attack to several of her colleagues at Stanford University, the New York Times reported Friday. During a lunch she hosted in the fall for fellow academics, Tyson described being sexually assaulted during the 2004 Democratic National Convention by a man who has since enjoyed political success. “What she told us was pretty much exactly what was in the statement that she released but with vastly less detail,” Elizabeth Armstrong, a fellow in the Stanford program and a professor at the University of Michigan, told the Times.